Kai didn’t sleep.The abandoned train station where Seraphine brought him was cold, hollow, and echoing with ghosts of old transit lines. Flickering lights stuttered above, casting fractured shadows along the cracked tiles. Kai sat against a pillar, fingers trembling as he rewrapped the fading burn marks on his arms.His system core still flickered in and out—its glow unstable, almost frightened.Seraphine watched him from a distance, perched casually on a rusted bench, sharpening a blade that shimmered like broken moonlight.She seemed far too relaxed for someone being hunted by the Sovereign Order.Kai finally broke the silence.“Why did you save me?”Seraphine didn’t glance up.“Because you weren’t supposed to die yet.”His chest tightened.“…yet?”“Don’t look at me like that.” She tossed him a small energy vial. “Your system is destabilizing. Drink.”“I’m not drinking anything from you.”“Suit yourself. I’ll just leave it here for when the pain becomes unbearable.”Kai clenched hi

The fissure swallowed the last echo of the Silver Warden’s metallic screech, but Kai didn’t dare relax. His body still thrummed with the residual energy of his surge, and every nerve felt alert, alive, and on fire. Elara’s grip on his arm was tight, dragging him along through the rubble-strewn corridor.“You sure this is the right way?” Kai gasped, his voice hoarse from exertion.Elara didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes scanned the crumbling walls and fractured floors, reading the faint luminescence of system energy markers embedded long ago by the Order. “If the Obsidian Convergence exists anywhere,” she said finally, “it’s this way. But the Order doesn’t make it easy. There are traps.”Kai’s pulse quickened. Traps? He’d survived the Dead Zone and the Silver Warden—what could be worse?Elara didn’t wait for an answer. She leapt over a collapsing section of floor, landing in a crouch. “Follow me. And don’t touch anything glowing!”THE FIRST TRAPAs Kai sprinted behind her, the corrid

The pathway illuminated by the retreating guardian stretched forward like a vein of light through darkness. Kai’s aura pulsed in rhythm with the Obsidian Convergence, a constant reminder of the immense power now flowing through him. Each step sent tremors through the chamber floor, reverberating against the walls and causing faint echoes to bounce like whispers from the past.“Elara… stay close,” he said, his voice steady but tinged with awe. His system was fully awake now, but the new energy was overwhelming. Every motion, every thought, every heartbeat amplified the ambient pulses of the Convergence.Elara nodded silently, her eyes scanning every shadow. The chamber ahead wasn’t just a passage; it was a sprawling labyrinth of energy conduits and ancient machinery, remnants of the Sovereign Order’s hidden experiments.Kai felt the system reacting. His adaptive interface pulsed with subtle notifications—energy readings, latent traps, and faint residual signatures left by other “imposs

The air trembled with anticipation. Every pulse of the Obsidian Convergence resonated through the chamber, syncing with Kai’s aura, amplifying the energy flowing through his veins. He stood at the center, energy constructs coiling around him like living extensions of his body, eyes scanning every shadow, every flicker of light.“Elara,” he said, voice low but firm, “they’re coming. Not just Wardens or soldiers, they’re orchestrating a full assault. Orion wants to see if we survive.”Elara tightened her grip on her weapon, eyes narrowed. “Then we give him a fight he won’t forget.”Kai’s system interface flared violently. Incoming energy signatures streamed across his vision: augmented soldiers, Silver Wardens, and unknown constructs of adaptive design. Every movement, every potential attack was calculated in real-time. His heart raced—not with fear, but with anticipation.THE ORDER STRIKESThe first wave crashed through the chamber’s entrance. Energy shields shimmered against the advan

Darkness.Not the soft, natural kind that settles behind closed eyelids but the cold, metallic blackness of forced unconsciousness.Kai floated in it.Weightless.Mind disconnected.Pain muted to distant echoes.Then—A sound.Hsssss.A hiss of decompressing air filled the void.It sliced through his mind like a needle, dragging him upward into awareness.Light snapped on.Kai’s eyes burned. His muscles flinched involuntarily. He gasped, lungs filling with air that felt too sterile, too cold, too processed to be natural.He tried to move.He couldn’t.His wrists were locked in magnetic restraints above his head.His ankles shackled to a steel platform.Cold metal pressed against his spine.A restraint chair.He blinked rapidly, forcing his vision to adjust.White light.Steel walls.A steady hum.A Sovereign holding cell.The realization struck his chest like a fist.So they captured him after the explosion.He survived the Enforcer but not the aftermath.A shadow moved on the far sid